Axact’s officials remanded in FIA custody
KARACHI: A judicial magistrate remanded four more officials of a software company in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency on Wednesday in a fake degrees and money laundering case.
The FIA had arrested Mohammed Rizwan, Imran Ahmed Khan, Atif Hussain and Adnan Sabur of the company, Axact, for allegedly preparing and selling degrees, diplomas and accreditation certificates of fictitious schools and universities through a fraudulent online system and illegally minting millions of dollars.
Also read: FIA raids Axact offices, takes records and employees into custody
An investigation officer presented the suspects before the court and sought their custody for questioning.
Karachi South Judicial Magistrate Noor Mohammad Kalmati handed them over to the FIA on a daylong physical remand.
The chief executive officer of the firm, Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, and four members of his management team — Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Mohammad Sabir and Zeeshan Ahmed — were already on physical remand in FIA’s custody and the investigating agency is likely to produce them along with the newly-arrested suspects before the court on Thursday for extension in their remand.
A case was registered against the suspects and others under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using as genuine a forged document), 472 (making counterfeit seal, etc., with intent to commit forgery punishable under section 467), 473 (making counterfeit seal, etc., with intent to commit forgery punishable otherwise), 474 (having possession of document described in Section 466 or 467 knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine), 477-A (falsification of accounts), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code, Sections 36 and 37 of Electronic Transaction Ordinance, 2002 and Sections 3 and 4 of Anti-money Laundering Act, 2010 at the FIA corporate crime circle, Karachi.
Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2015
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